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This Isn't Wisconsin. It's Worse, and Why.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

This Isn't Wisconsin. It's Worse, and Why.

by

Abby Zimet

Several cogent looks at Michigan's outrageous right-to-work-for-less legislation: its sorry significance in the historic heart of organized labor, its disastrous, statistically proven likely impact on jobs and the middle class, the charge that Republican legislators have "drunk the Koch Kool-Aid," and the truth of what is, despite libertarian blather about economic freedom, "a snarling pit bull of a policy that disempowers the institutional voice of employees—unions—for the benefit of corporations." With updates and a furious rant by Michigan Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer.

"This isn’t Wisconsin. It’s worse. It’s Michigan and it’s the UAW. But if Michigan can become a right-to-work state within a few days, pretty much any state can with a change in government. A specious argument extolling American individualism is camouflaging a power and money grab by the usual suspects, the kind of companies and propagandists that those farm workers and auto workers fought back in the day."

Further

The debacles pile up, from large - Iran, Obamacare, immigration, Puerto Rico, women's rights - to small, like rhyming Tanzania with mania. So do the questions about fitness: moron, or mentally ill? Citing their "duty to warn" about the danger Trump poses, a group of mental health experts are hosting a dozen town halls Saturday to confront the issue of "presidential capacity," and what to do about it. Not a moment too soon.